A consensus seems to be emerging in my state that the recall of Governor Gray Davis in 2003 was a mistake. A lot of folks are writing articles like this one by George Skelton, a prominent California commentator. I have seen no pushback anywhere. No one is writing, "Thank God we got rid of Davis" pieces. And it seems to be true what Skelton writes; that the entire recall movement was not because Californians were eager to rid themselves of Mr. Davis. It was more or less ginned up by Congressman Darrell Issa, who wrongly thought it would put him into the governor's chair. Issa now seems poised to try and stampede some sort of impeachment move against Barack Obama.
In his defense, Arnold Schwarzenegger is reduced to insisting that serving as governor cost him $200 million in lost earnings. That's probably true though I don't see why anyone should feel sorry for him. So let's do some math here…
Issa spent a reported $1.7 million to collect the signatures necessary to trigger the recall. The recall and special election cost the state an estimated $75 million and then there was around $20 million spent in state transition costs to go from Governor Davis to Governor Schwarzenegger. Add in Arnold's $200 million and what various candidates (including Arnold) spent to campaign for the seat and you easily have over $300 million bucks spent or foregone to make a switch that in hindsight, few think did any good. With financial wizardry like that, is it any wonder this state is in debt to the tune of…what is it this week? $250 billion?
I don't think, by the way, that's all (or even mostly) Arnold's fault. I think this state's governance has serious structural problems. There's this theory out there that if you limit a government's ability to raise taxes, you will "starve the beast" and spending will fall into line. That has not happened here. There is no connection between what the people demand in services and what they're willing to pay to get them. This is not a Democratic problem and it is not a Republican problem. It's a problem that people want to spend no more than ten cents in taxes but receive a dollar's worth of government. I think (hope) Jerry Brown will do better than any of his recent predecessors…but even if he does a lot better, the crisis will persist to some degree. I still think we oughta consider burning the whole state down for the insurance money.